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Hello...I don't know if this is a newbie question but lets take a stab

Linux Mint 13(maya)MATE 32-bit

First off I want tell my story...My uncle gave me a laptop and asked can I fix it. I said sure thinking about how I fix mostly windows OS computers but come to find out ... it Linux ... He couldn't log in and needed me to fix the password which I did with the Gnu Grub menu ... after I logged in i found out that you can't do anything after it loads up but four error messages popped up before that ... One reads "The panel encountered a problem while loading OAFIID:Mate_mintMenu" ... next read "The path for the directory containing caja settings need read and write permissions: /home/username/.config/caja" ... another one reads "Could not update ICEauthority file /home/username/.ICEauthority" ... and lastly this one reads "There is a problem with the configuration server. (/usr/lib/MateConf/mateconf-sanity-check-2 exited with status 256)

Sounds like his home directory was encrypted. His login password was used to decrypt his home directory. If he forgot his password and you changed it by using recovery mode, it will attempt to log in, but his home directory will be inaccessible. So when the desktop environment tries to load the user settings from the user's home directory, it spits out errors. Then usually you are left with a blank desktop.

You can press "alt+ctrl+F1at the login screen to get a terminal and log in there with his current username and password.After that create a new user for him and forget about the old one. Unfortunately, hisold files will remain inaccessible.

Adding newuser in terminal:Log in firstType "sudo adduser uncle" (without the quotes, replace "uncle" with whatever you want.), enter current password when prompted.Enter the new user password and details when promptedWhen done, press Ctrl+alt+F7 to get back to the login screen.

thegreatgazoo wrote:Sounds like his home directory was encrypted. His login password was used to decrypt his home directory. If he forgot his password and you changed it by using recovery mode, it will attempt to log in, but his home directory will be inaccessible. So when the desktop environment tries to load the user settings from the user's home directory, it spits out errors. Then usually you are left with a blank desktop.

You can press "alt+ctrl+F1at the login screen to get a terminal and log in there with his current username and password.After that create a new user for him and forget about the old one. Unfortunately, hisold files will remain inaccessible.

Adding newuser in terminal:Log in firstType "sudo adduser uncle" (without the quotes, replace "uncle" with whatever you want.), enter current password when prompted.Enter the new user password and details when promptedWhen done, press Ctrl+alt+F7 to get back to the login screen.

Log in as new user.Hope this helps

Thank you for your response gazoo ...

I tried the method that you said and I got a running user going and Uncle says that it's okay with him not getting the files ... as longs as he can use his laptop ...

Yes, I had a similar message after another update of LM14 Xfce(32) today, except it was a /var/lib file that seemed to go pear-shaped.I started in recovery mode several times until it hit the auto fsck @ 20 [which is quicker than using another liveCD].startx provided a root log-in from where I reset all my Xfce Settings, everything was set back to defaults, plus a bunch of other tidying up after checking that everything was still present, etc. (It was!)Logged out, rebooted and b-i-n-g-o.If all else fails, recommend loading Puppy Wary or Slacko, then extract all your personal stuff onto mobile HD, USB stick, w.h.y. before re-installing. Sometimes just copying /home onto media will suffice for some folks. The only app. that regularly goes bad is Claws - sometimes it will destroy you addressbook, sometimes your 'sent' folder, so be sure to copy these regularly to another device or, at least, partition.